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West Texas High loses bid for Bi-District title

After taking game one of a best of three series, the West Texas Comanches played Nazareth again on Saturday at WTAMU in Canyon. In game one on Saturday, the Tribe led most of the game, only to fall behind 7-6 in the top of the sixth inning. They put one man on base in the bottom of the seventh, but couldn’t get him across, and the lost the game 7-6. The tying and winning runs were unearned. That forced a third game.Game three began with what in hindsight should have been taken as a bad omen. The Swifts lead off man hit an inside-the- park home run. The game was close and the score was tied until the top of the fourth inning. The Tribe began to implode at this point. The game was also played under the lights, and I am pretty sure that none of the kids have done that since Babe Ruth or even Little League. The ball looks different under the lights, batting and fielding. That may have had an impact, but whatever it was, the Comanches were run ruled in the sixth inning, 16-5.Senior Logan Hoff started on the mound for game one. He threw five innings and struck out six hitters. He allowed seven hits and walked just one, but also got credit for an intentional walk. The Tribe was leading 6-5 when he left the mound. Big Ty Lay closed the game with the final two innings. He walked one, struck two out, and allowed one hit.Carlos Juarez had a good game at the plate. He went 3-4 with 3 RBI’s. Lay had 3 RBI’s and Senior Kyle Stroud had an RBI. Senior Logan Hoff legged out a ride around the bases after the center field misjudged a fly ball. They scored the hit as an error so it was not an inside-the-park home run. Juarez made a great play at second base when he made a diving catch on a line drive`to retire the Swifts. The play was exceptional enough for a top ten spot on ESPN. Stroud also had an unassisted double play at third when he caught a line drive and tagged the bag after the base runner had started home. WT 1 0 2 3 0 0 0Nazareth 0 1 0 2 2 2 0 GAME TWOJunior Alex Ramirez took the mound for WT to begin the third game of the series, which was game two on Saturday. Juarez had some bad breaks to start the game with the inside-the-park home run, a balk that helped score a run. However, they got a break when Tyler Hoff was interfered with after a force at second. The base runner knocked him down, preventing him from making an attempt at a double play. Nazareth took a 3-0 lead after the top of the first.WT battled right back. Jeremy O’Gorman hit a ground ball to short but was determined to make to first when he dove head first into the bag. He was safe. Lay belted a double to the left field fence to score O”Gorman and Lay had a stand up double. Unfortunately, O’Gorman was called out when he tried to steal second. Stroud also landed on first safely after he hit a grounder to third. Stroud and O’Gorman are both very quick. Chase Elliott scored a couple of RBIs on a double to center. They trailed 3-2 after one.Naz put up two more runs on one hit in the second to take a 5-2 edge. Ramirez made a nice catch off the mound to end the inning. Three up and three down left the score at 5-2 after two. O’Gorman threw a runner out trying to steal second after he was on with a walk. The Tribe held the Swifts to no runs. The Tribe had a nice inning with the bats. Lay knocked the fire out of the ball to the center field fence and was into third standing up for a triple that also cored O’Gorman. Juarez walked and Senior Chancy Simmons hit a hard grounder up the middle for a base hit RBI. Ramirez was up next and put the ball in the exact same place. That was it for WT but they tied the score at five after three innings. After this inning, the self destruction began for WT High.The Swifts batted around plus four. The Comanches made five errors and Naz scored eight runs off two hits. The game was quickly out of hand as the Tribe now trailed 13-5. You could have stuck a fork in West Texas at this point. They were done. They managed to load the bases with two outs, but couldn’t get any across the plate. The Tribe didn’t even get close. They went three up and three down to end their season on a sour note, 16-5.Ramirez pitched three and a half innings. Logan Hoff pitched one and a half, and Juarez closed with the last half inning.Lay hit a double, a triple, and had an RBI. Elliott hit a double with two RBIs. Simmons had an RBI. WT 2 3 0 0 0 Naz 3 2 0 8 3